Product Details

• Actors: John Hurt, Jason Priestley, Fiona Loewi, Sheila Hancock, Harvey Atkin
• Directors: Richard Kwietniowski
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vidmark / Trimark
• VHS Release Date: July 22, 2003
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00009MEBF
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #131,626 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Art House & International > United Kingdom > Gay & Lesbian

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

An older artist, shunned by the white-hot media of the contemporary world, begins to glow again when he meets a handsome, not-altogether all-American boy. In 1998, two writer-directors brought extraordinary care to this subject, creating films that appeared on several top 10 lists. Gods and Monsters won an Oscar for Bill Condon's screenplay and a nomination for Ian McKellen's acting. Richard Kwietniowski's Love and Death on Long Island was forgotten during the award season. John Hurt has rarely been better as Giles De'Ath, a renowned British author of dry, laborious text. By sheer accident he sees a Porky's-type comedy at the theater: Hot Pants College II. About to leave, he spies on screen his very idea of beauty: a near-talentless American actor named Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestley, in another deft, underseen performance). So starts De'Ath's very long trek out of his shell. He is so out of touch that when he purchases a VCR (to see the original Hot Pants College, no less), he doesn't realize he needs a TV set to view the picture. By film's end, he will meet his idol and jump into an abyss. Kwietniowski's debut film has uncommon sensitivity in the realm of fantasy and dream makers. As with Gods and Monsters, its homosexual undercurrent can play comfortably in front of straight viewers looking for crisp writing, fresh perspectives, and great acting. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker

A surprising film about romantic pursuit, written like a mischievous postmodern fable. John Hurt is Giles De'Ath, a widowed British author of highbrow novels who lives in reclusive Luddite splendor until he is smitten with teen-flick heartthrob Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestley). Giles pursues this unlikely object of desire all the way to a sweet little Long Island hamlet, where his inventive plans for ensnaring Ronnie prove to be both baroquely funny and touching. One of the many ways in which the film subverts our expectations is by refusing to condescend to its central character; we come to see the daffy Giles as half stalker, half poète maudit, transfigured by romantic greatness. Directed with an original touch by Richard Kwietniowski, the movie is less about the nature of homoerotic longing than about the closeted nature of love itself. -Daphne Merkin
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional bittersweet view of sexual obsession, September 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Love & Death on Long Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This updated "Death in Venice" with humor/satire will not appeal to everyone. After all, it lacks Glenn Close wielding a knife. What it does offer are three striking peformances from John Hurt as an older man obsessed with teen idol Jason Priestley, and Fiona Loewi as the teen idol's girlfriend, who is considerably sharper than she first appears. (There is also a wonderful cameo role by Sheila Hancock as Hurt's housekeeper. Ms. Hancock, for my money, is one of England's best comic actresses and makes too few movies.) Hurt, as an out-of-touch (out-of-this-century?) writer who rejoins the living when he accidentally catches Priestley in a Grade B Teen-Cumming-of-Age-Flick, is perfect, as always. The contrast between the Grade B images of overt, low comedy sexuality, with the "real-life" (as opposed to "reel-life") Hurt in active mode is just one of the many joys this exceptional movie offers. Hurt's futile but brilliant attempts to seduce Mr. Priestley under Ms. Loewi's nose -- a nose that soon smells something off -- is both poignant and hilarious. Definitely one of the best films of the year....

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Subtle and Beautiful, December 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Love & Death on Long Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've noticed some wonderfully divergent comments about the film, here. The reason the film is so great is that it truly does offer a multitude of possibilities. For me, this film was about finding beauty in the places where you least expect it. Finding beauty in a teenage sex romp, in men, in Long Island. Giles De'ath's search for beauty (and it's tragic rejection of him) is, I feel, the essence of this film and it is executed with remarkable precision and very good humor.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Journey Through Such Different Lifestyles and Places, April 23, 2001

By	Lila Strantoni (Richmond, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love & Death on Long Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As my headline says, the lifestyles and places seen throughout the film vary so much that the viewer feels like he's speeding through the universe on a spaceship.

You can enjoy the hilariously dowdy British charwoman played by respected British character actress Sheila Hancock. I laughed for a minute when she gestured toward Giles' new VCR and said, "Those things are more trouble than they're worth."

You visit modern British stores: an appliance store and a video club.

You attend a high-brow lecture in London at which protagonist Giles De'Ath rambles on about an intangible idea he created while enjoying the work of the teen heartthrob.

The film makes a statement about homosexuality that is much more profound than the many films made since the 1980s that have shown men glaring at or kissing each other: "My Beautiful Laundrette," "Boys Life 3," "The Toilers and the Wayfarers," etc.

This movie shows that the love you feel with your eyes and ears is more meaningful than anything that happens below the waist. In the diner scene *toward the end*, but not at the very end, Giles admits to Ronnie that he feels love. Ronnie rejects him. The viewer gets a few scenes after that. They show that Giles' life has been greatly enriched by his non-physical experiences with the heartthrob actor.

Also, watch the film again and listen carefully to the dialogue in that diner scene for yet another notion not expressed so far in the many "amazon.com" reviews of "Love and Death On Long Island." You will note that before Giles admits his love, he pushes on Ronnie the superiority of the European literary theater world to the American teen sex film genre. Ronnie would have allowed Giles to follow him to Los Angeles and assist with his career there. By agreeing to do that Giles could have kept seeing him without physical intimacy. Ronnie's wife would have had to tolerate Giles eventually as long as Giles developed their planned project about the deaf boy wearing a hospital gown.

But no, Giles insists on changing Ronnie's career and attitude toward high-brow vs. low-brow. Giles wants him to start a new career in Europe. We never know if Giles wants to get physical with Ronnie. But we learn that Giles' number one reaction to an appealing young man is to nurture him by indoctrinating him to a world he has missed.

This idea says a lot about the many American gay men of a certain age who work in the mental health profession and the priesthood. They love to dominate and nurture young men even if they don't get physically intimate.

You don't learn that from the many interchangeable films at gay film festivals. Fortunately, "Love and Death On Long Island" didn't play at one. It got marketed as a general-interest film. That's what it is. Rent it as soon as you can.

John Hurt, Sheila Hancock and Jason Priestley are all magnificent. Notice how I'm spelling "Priestley" correctly. Jason, if you're out there, thank you for the risk you took by making this one. You may not have gotten the supporting role in "Jerry Maguire" that you wanted, but you did great with "Love and Death On Long Island." Your name helped sell it. Peace.